Top 19 geovisualization tools, APIs and libraries that will let you create beautiful web maps

Creating a good web map is not an easy task but over the years we’ve seen plenty of amazing geovisualization examples. Almost all of them have been developed with the use of one of the tools, APIs or libraries mentioned below.

If you think that we are missing something let us know in the comments.

Mapbox is a geo-visualization platform that gives easy to use set of tool for creating beautiful web and mobile maps. It offers users a full control over map styling (including background map) and has a lot of cool additional services such as satellite images, geocoding or directions.

CARTO previously known as CartoDB is the best platform for complex and dynamic geospatial data visualization and analysis. But don’t be afraid it offers also a lot of drag and drop easy to use tools for newbies.

Esri has monopolized the field of GIS and is also one of the most popular geo visualization platforms. It offers easy to use, cloud based environment that allows creating beautiful story maps among other.

Here Data Lens is a set of APIs that provide a seamless developer experience for creation & deployment cool data visualisations. Most importantly it gives you an access to amazing HERE’s maps database with unique features like isoline routing.

Google Maps offers a set of APIs for different mapping purposes. It offers access to Google’s mapping data that includes StreetView among others. You must have used plenty of Google Maps-based app without really knowing about it. Have you played GeoGuessr? It’s also based on Google Maps.

D3.js is a JavaScript library that offers powerful data visualization features for producing dynamic, interactive data visualizations in web browsers. In fact many of the top visualizations done in aforementioned platforms also use D3 elements.

GIS Cloud is a web-based GIS platform. It designed for spatial analysis rather than map-based dashboards but it offers the fastest on the market performance as well as other cool features like 3D support.

Maps4news is a platform that allows for designing cool looking maps online and downloading them in a vector format needed for printed media (and for editing by designers). There is some basic interactivity that you can add if you want to publish it online.

Tableau is a Business Intelligence and Analytics tool that allows you to easily create interactive data dashboards and understand large data sets. It is not particularly dedicated to geospatial data but it offers quite advanced mapping features when you dig a bit deeper inside it.

Infogram is a web-based infographics platform that allows creating cartogram maps as one of the features. You can olny map maps per country but if this is what you need it’s one of the easiest tools out there.

MapStack is a web-based tool that allows you to play around with OSM background map. You can easily choose one of the main map themes and then modify particular map layers like color, opacity, and brightness.

Kartograph is a simple and lightweight Javascript and Phyton library for building interactive map applications without Google Maps or any other mapping service. It was created with the needs of designers and data journalists in mind.

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I'm a professional always thinking outside the box and a self-confessed gadget addict. As a son of a professor of cartography I was surrounded by maps all my life and as a result spatial way of thinking and seeing reality is naturally embedded in who I am.